Grassley was one of 12 Republican senators, and the lead signatory, on a letter sent to Janet Napolitano, secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. The letter came in response to comments made by Napolitano regarding the possibility of comprehensive immigration reform and what she perceived as positive economic impacts of a path to legalization for undocumented immigrants.

“With all due respect,” the letter reads, “legalizing those who have no legal right to be in the United States will not be a ‘boon’ to American workers. Rather it would only exacerbate the unfair competition American workers currently face as they struggle to find jobs. … Therefore, we strongly encourage you to cease any discussion about enacting a legalization program…”

For Iowans, who watched the economic decimation of Postville and the surrounding area following the massive May 2008 immigration raid at a local meatpacking plant, such assertions of displaced and disenfranchised American workers may fall flat. In fact, in a last ditch attempt to keep the company afloat, the owners hired staffing firms that ultimately resorted to importing homeless individuals from other states to fill vacancies — a situation that disrupted quality of life in the region, and still did not prevent the company’s ultimate bankruptcy.

Even if the Postville experience is removed from the equation, written off due to the “company store” mentality that had permeated life in the area, Iowans are also beginning to understand that the state’s agricultural sector is having growing pains of its own. As populations in rural areas continue to age, local farmers are looking to immigrant workers to meet the demands of production. A study, conducted by the Texas-based Perryman Group, concluded that if every undocumented worker was removed from the U.S., agriculture would be one of the nation’s hardest hit industries. The study estimates that more than $171 billion would be lost nationally and that a total of 476,277 jobs would disappear from the overall economy as a result of the losses.

The letter also takes exception with what it calls “diluted enforcement initiatives,” highlighting delays in requiring federal contractors to use the E-Verify system and changes in the 287(g) program, which permitted local law enforcement to pursue immigration enforcement efforts. (There are no active 287(g) programs in Iowa, although some local agencies have obtained immigration training outside the federal program.)

Perhaps most upsetting to proponents of comprehensive reform is the fact that U.S. Sen. Orrin Hatch, a Utah Republican, is one of the signatories. Hatch had previously broken with his party by becoming the original sponsor of the DREAM Act and his signature, perhaps more than any other, along with his assertion that the senators were taking “Napolitano to task” signals the next partisan show-down on the horizon.

Sholom M. Rubashkin

Rubashkin, who is the 50-year-old son of Agriprocessors founder and president A. Aaron Rubashkin, was convicted of all possible money laundering and mail, wire and bank fraud charges. He was also convicted on 15 out of 20 counts of failing to provide timely pay to livestock auctions and providers.

The verdict followed nearly a month of testimony and evidence in which the government sought to paint Rubashkin as one, if not the, mastermind in a plot to defraud creditors. The defense team, in contrast, chose to portray Rubashkin as inexperienced, naive and unprepared to serve as day-to-day manager for such a large undertaking as the kosher meatpacking plant in Postville.

Following the lengthy reading of the verdict, Rubashkin was taken into federal custody, and his defense attorney, Guy Cook, pledged to appeal. Rubashkin is expected to return to eastern Iowa next week for sentencing and a possible bail hearing pending appeal. He faces a maximum sentence of more than 1,000 years in prison for the guilty verdicts.

An early December trial has been slated for an additional 72 federal immigration-related charges against Rubashkin, and he also faces a trial in state court this spring for possible child labor law violations.

All of the charges stem back to a massive May 12, 2008 immigration raid at the Postville facility. More than 300 immigrant workers detained by federal authorities pleaded guilty to criminal charges related to identity theft within days of their apprehension, and the bulk have been deported after serving brief federal prison sentences. Some immigrant workers, however, continue to live in and around Postville and are expected to be called by the prosecution in the upcoming trial.

The road between the actual raid and the federal trial in Sioux Falls, S.D., was long and has often wound its way through traditionally uncomfortable conversations for Americans regarding immigration, civil rights, religious expression and the composition and worth of charity.

The Rubashkin family, all ultra-orthodox Jews affiliated with the Hasidic Chabad Lubavitch movement, have at times suggested that the charges against them stem not from any alleged illegal activity, but from anti-Semitism. Throughout the investigation, and especially following the initial arrest and jailing of Sholom Rubashkin, many of the Jewish religious faithful, either through their own conscience or through the prodding and help of Chabad, have defended the Rubashkins from wrongdoing and stood as character witnesses for the family’s contributions.

Both inside and outside of Jewish circles, however, the Rubashkins have drawn criticism, many believing that generosity was born of ill-gotten-gains, harvested on the back of an underpaid and often mistreated immigrant workforce. Media reports, which prompted the move of the trials from Iowa to South Dakota, have given supposed victims of child labor and sexual harassment at the Postville plant a voice.

The company known as Agriprocessors fell into bankruptcy last year, and has re-emerged as AgriStar under the new ownership of SHF Industries, a venture of Canadian businessman Hershey Friedman. Heshy Rubaskin, brother to Sholom and son of Aaron, continues to work at the reborn business.

At least six former members of plant management or the human resources department have pleaded guilty in the wake of the 2008 immigration raid:

April 13, 2009 — Elizabeth Billmeyer, 48 and the former human resources manager, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to harbor undocumented aliens for profit and one count of knowingly accepting false resident alien cards.

March 19, 2009 — Penny Ann Hanson, 41 and a former human resources employee, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to make false statements on immigration documents.

Dec. 10, 2008 — Karina Pilar Freund, 29 and a former human resources employee, pleaded guilty to one misdemeanor count of aiding and abetting a pattern or practice of hiring undocumented aliens.

Oct. 29, 2008 — Laura Althouse, 38 and a former human resources employee, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to harbor undocumented aliens and one count of aggravated identity theft.

Aug. 27, 2008 — Martin De La Rosa-Loera, 43 and a former plant supervisor, pleaded guilty to one count of aiding and abetting the harboring of undocumented aliens.

Aug. 20, 2008 — Juan Carlos Guerrero-Espinoza, 35 and a former plant supervisor, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to hire illegal aliens and one count of aiding and abetting the hiring of illegal aliens.

Former plant operations manager Brent Beebe, 51, will soon be tried on immigration-related charges in federal court. Two additional plant managers — Hosam Amara and Zeev Levi — also face criminal charges, but have yet to be apprehended by authorities.

The aide also confirms she will file paperwork with the Federal Election Commission next week.

Later in the day, that aide was outed by The Des Moines Register as Mark Daley, longtime Democratic strategist and a Conlin adviser. He also confirmed she is looking into possible staff and consultants.

Conlin said last month that she would likely join the field of Democrats vying to defeat Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley. Bob Krause of Fairfield, Tom Fiegen of Clarence and Sal Mohamed of Sioux City have already declared their candidacies.

Conlin, a former president of the nation’s trial lawyers association who ran unsuccessfully for governor in 1982 and has built a reputation as one of the country’s leading civil rights attorneys, promised to raise $10 million for the campaign without taking contributions from lobbyists or political action committees.

When asked to picture farm life, many people invision idyllic settings like the ones painted by reknown Iowa artist Grant Wood. The true realities of farm life, however, are often isolation, depression and hopelessness.

The Farm and Ranch Stress Assistance Network, authorized (but not funded) by the 2008 farm bill, would create a national crisis hotline for rural workers and also mandates additional behavioral health services in geographically rural regions. While some states have hotlines and some capacity to provide behavioral health services designed for agricultural workers, others have nothing in place.

Statistics show that the presence of such services can reduce rural violence and suicides, which are currently on the rise.

“How many deaths will it take?” asked Mike Rosmann, executive director of AgriWellness, an Iowa-based nonprofit that promotes accessible behavioral health services for underserved rural populations. “[This] leaves farm people with fewer options to deal with mounting stress. It is especially true for livestock and dairy producers, although the picture is much bigger than just those industries because grain prices are declining and costs of production are rising above the value of products in the marketplace.”

U.S. Sens. Tom Harkin and Chuck Grassley of Iowa pushed for the creation of the stress assistance network as a part of the farm bill. Harkin, a Democrat who chairs the Senate Agricultural Committee, had requested $5 million be provided to the program during appropriations debate. Grassley, a Republican, and Democratic Sen. Tim Johnson of South Dakota also argued for “appropriating the maximum amount possible” in a letter sent to the agriculture appropriations subcommittee in May.

“Farming is one of the most stressful and dangerous occupations in the United States,” Grassley said in December 2007, while urging members of his own political party to stop their attempts to block inclusion of the network in the farm bill. “There are environmental, cultural and economic factors that put farmers and ranchers at a higher risk for mental health problems. Stress is agriculture contributes to rates of depression and suicide that are double the national average. This is true even in good times for farmers.”

Indeed, as senators who opposed creation of the network were quick to point out, the agriculture community at the time of the farm bill debate was flourishing. That is unfortunately not the case today as farmers brace against overall economic decline, suffer massive product price reductions and battle against misinformation about disease. Under these circumstances, and without a safety net, health care professionals are worried that the nation will once again witness breakdowns within agricultural communities similar to those seen during the 1980s farm crisis.

“The consequence of all of this is that there will be mounting frustration,” Rosmann said. “There is also a greater likelihood that more and more people will be frustrated to the point that they are going to do something because they feel like government isn’t listening. We have to have parity of behavioral health care for rural and urban people.”

The appropriations bills will now be taken into a conference committee where the differences between them will be reconciled. During the appropriations conference process, according to a spokeswoman in Grassley’s office, congressional rules do not permit funding for an item that was not previously contained in either the House or Senate versions of the bill. If the conference committee did attempt to include the funding, any member could object — and, given the debate during this item’s authorization in the farm bill, some lawmaker probably would.

“I worked very hard to put the Farm Stress Assistance Network in the farm bill,” Harkin said during a conference call Thursday morning with reporters. “It was attacked … during the farm bill debate, but we persisted and got it in. I just haven’t been able to get funding for it yet. The Republicans would not sign off on my efforts on this.”

There is also some speculation that funding could be included in overall health care reform, but such inclusion would likely be left to a newly created health care committee through recommendations from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

In that type of scenario, the U.S. Department of Agriculture would have much less influence in terms of ensuring urban-rural parity. Further, if health care reform does not include a public option and/or if preventive behavioral health services like the stress assistance network aren’t considered essential services, already cash-strapped rural families would be more likely to have to pay additional premiums to access insurance coverage for such services.

“I’m disappointed that the agriculture appropriations committee failed to see the positive benefits of this program,” Grassley said in a statement to The Iowa Independent. “Farmers continue to see drastic market swings and difficult weather patterns. The assistance of the Farm and Ranch Stress Assistance Network would be a tremendous help to many feeling the impact of problems out of their control.”

The fiscal 2010 Agriculture, Rural Development and FDA Appropriations approved by the Senate includes nearly $101 billion in mandatory spending, an increase of roughly $13 billion from what was enacted in 2009, and just over $24 billion in discretionary spending, an increase of roughly $2.5 billion from 2009. The House bill calls for nearly $23 billion in spending, an increase of roughly $2.3 billion from 2009. The appropriations bill funds nutritional programs, food and drug safety initiatives, international food aid, USDA research and rural development programs.

Leigh Rekow

The man appointed by the Postville City Council to serve as interim mayor accepted campaign contributions totaling more than $2,000 from members of the Rubashkin family, who founded and operated the beleaguered Agriprocessors meatpacking plant, site of a massive 2008 immigration raid.

Leigh Rekow, 74, took the oath of office Wednesday after being appointed mayor by a 3-2 vote of the council earlier in the week. He will serve as mayor through November.

Rekow, a Republican who served more than a decade on the Postville City Council, formerly represented Iowa House District 32 in the Legislature and served on the agriculture standing committee. It was during his campaigns for the Iowa House that Rekow accepted political contributions from Abraham Aaron Rubashkin, founder of Agriprocessors, and his son, Sholom Rubashkin, day-to-day executive in charge of the Postville plant.

The contributions, which were made during 2000 and 2002, total $2,100 — $1,600 from Sholom and $500 from Aaron Rubashkin.

Rekow, according to Stephen Bloom’s account in the book “Postville,” led the local effort to annex the meatpacking plant into the city. The plan was severely disliked by the Jewish community to the point of some accusing local residents of anti-Semitism and Sholom Rubashkin threatening to pack up the business and move it elsewhere if residents voted in favor of annexation.

“What upsets me is that some people in Postville think that we came in and took something that wasn’t ours,” Aaron Rubashkin is quoted in the book by Bloom as saying. “My sons are native-born Americans, just like the people of Postville. We have every right to make a life there — like the Postville people have. This annexation, what this Rekow is trying to make, we don’t need people putting sticks in the spokes of our wheels.”

The people did ultimately vote to annex the property, which allowed taxes and further regulation of the plant. Given that Bloom’s book was published in 2000, the same year as the Rubashkins began support of Rekow in his statehouse bid, logical assumptions can be made that either the rift was healed or the Rubashkin family preferred to have Rekow in Des Moines and out of local politics.

Either way, the person who now has the reins in Postville, is someone intimately familiar with the Rubashkin family and the history of Agriprocessors in Postville.

Speaking with Janell Bradley, a correspondent for the Waterloo Cedar Falls Courier, Rekow said his love for the city prompted his seeking the seat.

“I want to see Postville succeed,” Rekow said. “As a community we’re all pretty much working together. We have great hopes for Postville. We’re not giving up on anything.”

Rekow said he is willing to do what it takes to improve employment opportunities and fill empty houses and apartments. A community coalition is trying to address those issues.

“I plan to sit in and bring the necessary information to the council,” he added.

Former Postville mayor Bob Penrod resigned last month.

The Agriprocessors plant was the site of a massive federal immigration raid on May 12, 2008. Nearly 400 plant workers were detained, roughly a third of the plant’s workforce. Most were charged criminally and sentenced to federal prison terms prior to being deported. Sholom Rubashkin and several additional plant supervisors and members of management are also now the subject of federal investigations and criminal charges. The plant and its management also face state allegations of child labor law violations.

Elizabeth Billmeyer, 48, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to harbor undocumented aliens for profit and one count of knowingly accepting false resident alien cards. Billmeyer was charged on March 31, following information that she had conspired for more than five years with two other employees at Agriprocessors to employ illegal immigrants for commercial advantage and private financial gain. It was also during that time, according to court records, that Billmeyer accepted alien resident cards that she knew to be fraudulent.

Billmeyer remains free on bond pending sentencing. She faces a possible maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, a $500,000 fine, a $200 special assessment and six years of supervised release following any prison term. Billmeyer is also one of the Agriprocessors employees named in a state case that alleges more than 9,000 violations of child labor laws.

The case is one of many in the wake of a federal immigration enforcement effort at the plant last year that netted 389 workers. Two individuals that worked under Billmeyer in the human resources department, Laura Althouse and Katrina Freund, have already made guilty pleas. Other supervisors and members of management at the plant await their day in court. Sholom Rubashkin, son of the company founder and day-to-day executive in Postville, is scheduled for trial in September on numerous charges relating from immigration conspiracy to bank fraud.

The future of the plant remains in turmoil as creditors and potential buyers hash out a possible Chapter 11 bankruptcy sale.